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Women's Swimming

Senior tri-captain Hannah Tringham checks in about the 2009 WAC Shootout, and what's ahead for the Spartan swimmers and divers this fall.

Fourth-year senior Hannah Tringham, a native of Cameron Park, Calif., provides the second installment of The Spartan Splash for the 2009-10 season here at SJSUSpartans.com. The Spartans went 4-2 at the second annual Western Athletic Conference Shootout, which they hosted two weekends ago, and now have some time off from competition, to prepare for their top event of the fall, November's Toshiba Classic.

Once again, the Spartan swimming and diving season is underway. Classes started almost two months ago, midterms have arrived, and the season is in full swing. The team is working hard and looking forward to the rest of our season.

Last weekend, we held the second annual WAC Shootout at our pool. Last year, in New Mexico, we won the entire meet, an exciting feat that really set the standard for the rest of our year. Coming off of such a great season, we had our hopes set on, once again, winning the WAC Shootout. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a much bigger challenge than we had anticipated. Many of the teams came into the meet ready to swim much faster than is usually seen at a mid-season dual meet, and we were caught off-guard in our home pool. After losing to Boise State on the first day, the team rallied to beat New Mexico State and UC Davis on the second day, but we were still not able to beat Hawai'i. This brought our dual meet record to 4-3, a less advantageous start than last year.

Every morning before a meet, we do what we call a 'wake-up swim.' We get to the pool early in the morning and loosen up for a few minutes, just to get warmed up and ready to go for the day. I feel as though the Shootout was, in a sense, a wake-up swim to our season. Although we were all disheartened by the two losses, it really made us step back and think about what we have to do to get ready for this year. The team, as a whole, sat down and talked about what we needed to do to make ourselves better. We realized that we have a lot of work to do, and started to focus on where we could improve the most. Ever since, practices have been a little different. We trained really hard this week, and worked on our weaknesses every day. I feel as though the focus has really shifted to how we want to do at the WAC Championship, instead of concerning ourselves with how we did at the WAC Shootout.

As a senior captain, I am very excited to see how we compete this year! We have started out a little rocky, but I know what the Spartans can achieve, and I couldn't be more excited for the season. Our training is going well, and we are working very hard in the weight room. CrossFit workouts are still intense, and we all know that we have a hard week of training coming up, but we are all ready to intensify our practices and take this team further than before.

We are getting ready to head to the Toshiba Classic (formerly Nike Cup), down in Long Beach, in a few short weeks. The team is excited, and these next few weeks of training, without any meets, should help us get fully prepared. I am truly eager to see how our season plays out, and can't wait to see how we swim over the next few months leading up to WAC. The team has the potential to be the best, and I couldn't be happier than to help our team achieve our dreams.